at places like a military base in kansas to its effects on a number of american writers like john steinbeck. she read english at the university of cambridge and holds a further degree in psychology and is the author of several books about the history oflondon and her book globe, the world of shakespeare's london published by simon and schuster in 2015 and she's joining us today from the uk . welcome catherine . >> thank you for being here with us. >> in telling the story of this disease you focus on first-person accounts from doctors, nurses and children all over the world. did you choose to take such a personal view of the pandemic ? >> i wanted to write a book that people can relate to but there's the story about where people can read it and find characters like themselves. it was almost like a disaster movie. we've got people on the titanic or whatever so the full spectrum of human personality types and people, there's so much you can relate to that a very consumer experience whether it's because of their age or their gender or their background. so many people, close to 1 million people

in your book you mentioned thomas wolf, john steinbeck, a carthy invention catharine and porter, tella little bit about what they went through and how it affected their writing. >> sure, what's interesting about them there's a humorous james thurber is quite surprising of the foam phenomenon and catharine and porter's case, she's a journalist journalist in colorado and the rocky mountains news. she was a single girl who had coffee and cigarettes and spent money on clothes. she was living there when she became ill. her landlady took a look at her and threw her out. so she turned to her editor for help in better hospital bed otherwise she would've died. hearing doctors talk about her giving up on her they thought they were setting her obituary in type. makes me shudder to think of that. she pulled through, but she had -- she was violently ill when she was recovering she tried to get out of bed and broke her arm. and then she had a distinct with the spanish flu which her hair turned white. never grew back to its natural college had a diet black for the rest of her life. but she had a luc

in your book you mentioned thomas wolfe, john steinbeck,mary mccarthy, katharine ann porter. tell us what they went through and how it faked their writing. >> sure. what is interesting is there weren't more that -- only those four writers -- preeminent people i could find in the states who had gone through it or knew of it. it's quite surprising that as a phenomenon it wasn't antiabout and mythologized the way the war was. well, in katherine ann porter's case, she was a journalist in colorado in the rockie mountain news and she was divorced, single gal, lived on coffee and cigarettes cigarettes and spent her money on clothes and living in lodgings when she became ill and her land lady took one look at her and threw her out. so that was she turned to -- he found her a hospital bed without which some ooh have died. katharine wise lying in hospital behind screens hearing doctors giving up on her. her colleagues were -- i can -- just makes me shudder to think of that. she pulled through but she had -- she was vie left-handily ill and when she was recovering tried to get out of be

let's go forth in time to john steinbeck who was a nobel prize winner in literature. he has one of novel grapes of wrath and how he happened to write a history money was trapped in one of these labor camps in california, he went through hell and wrote about it? not at all. he was already fairly well-to-do because he'd written a novel that had been written by the movies but he joined the staff of this inference is good news so he would have a valid reason to go around to these labor camps during the great depression after so much farmland have been wiped out in the tremendous growth known as the dust bowl. he bought an old truck and put in some clothes and food and went from one camp to another where many were from oklahoma and they were trying to make a go of some of them working for as little as 12 cents a day. he finally came upon a family of four who were living under a carpet and hubcaps and grass, it was like a giant bird's nest. the wife in the family had two miscarriages, late term miscarriages in the preceding 18 months. as soon as he saw this comic got the id